The Cleradini (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae: Rhyparochrominae) are an entire tribe (current classification including 11 genera and 23 species) whose blood-feeding habit is little known. A possible disease vector role for these insects was indicated by the laboratory transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi by Clerada apicornis, the type species of the tribe's type genus. C. apicornis inhabits rodent nests, often in association with human habitation. This taxonomic study will revise the tribe on a world-wide basis, providing keys to genera and species to facilitate the identification of these hematophagous insects. Both cladistic and phenetic analyses of the taxa and character systems discovered will be performed. Additionally, distributional data will be mapped for all taxa, both for a zoogeographic analysis of the tribe and for comparison with the distributional patterns of Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis.